The final but most important area that I wanted to
cover was the usability and the ability to configure
Desktop/LX to my personal liking.
The Lycoris desktop itself is very clean containing
icons that are familiar to everyone, and allow for a
starting point of navigating throughout the entire
operating system. Only four
icons exist on the desktop; My Linux System, Network Browser,
Personal Files, and Recycle Bin.
Again, just like before, these icons are very similar in
naming and purpose to that of the icons on the Windows
desktop.
Also something inside of Desktop/LX is something new
to Linux. In prior versions and distributions,
there has not been a separate area for system
configuration. Users normally relied on going to
the "start" menu and finding some sort of
configuration tool
there. Now with Desktop/LX there is a Control
Center that contains everything related to system
configuration. There are separate categories for
User Management, Desktop & Appearance, Install
Software, Sound & Multimedia, and many more.
This now creates a central area where all system
configuration and user preferences can be made with
relative ease.
Several people have asked me, what programs does
Lycoris Desktop/LX contain or are there any of my
favorite packages such as Gnome and Enlightenment?
The Lycoris Desktop/LX that I installed was the most
recent Update 2, Build 46 release on July 30th on the
Lycoris website.
The default installation contains quite a list of
installed software: KDE 2.2.2 desktop, Konqueror 2.2.1
File Manager, Mozilla web browser 1.0, gFTP 2.0.8,
LICQ 1.0.2, Koffice 1.1.1, Gimp image editor 1.2,
RealPlayer 8.0, Xine media player 0.9.6, Adobe Acrobat
Reader 5.0.5, KOnCD CD burning software 1.0rc2, and
many more software packages too numerous to name.
It should be noted that
Desktop/LX caters to inexperienced computer users and
power users alike. If you are someone who enjoys
compiling your own modules into the kernel and running
server based applications, Lycoris Desktop/LX is
probably not for you. Desktop/LX is aimed
specifically at the user who just wants to install it
and have it work right away.
There is a lot more that could be said about Lycoris
Desktop/LX, but I believe everything can be summed up
into a single phrase. Lycoris Desktop/LX is a true
desktop Linux OS that is easy to install, easy to use,
but most importantly it just works. Lycoris has done
a tremendous job in taking Linux and making it into an
easy to use desktop centered operating system.
Although Lycoris has come a great distance, they still
have a lot to improve upon and a great distance yet to
go before they will be in direct competition with Mac
OS X and Windows XP.
As for me, I will continue to use Lycoris Desktop/LX
on one of my other machines. In just the few
days I have used it and explored its features, I have
become attached to using a version of Linux that needs
little configuration and works immediately after
installing. This may be an avenue for me to
research for future customers. Offering them an
alternative to Windows if they request it without
having such a huge learning curve that is required
with other major distributions. I am definitely
excited at the opportunities that Lycoris is going to
present desktop users in the coming future. As
long as Lycoris can continue to add improvements to
Desktop/LX as well as start distributing Desktop/LX
via the OEM market, they stand a excellent chance of
succeeding and giving Microsoft and Apple a run for
their money.
